


A Danger To Us All

by Tenshi_Nanashi



Category: X-Men (Alternate Timeline Movies), X-Men (Movieverse)
Genre: Child Abuse, M/M, Memory Alteration, b/c kurt marko is homophobic, charles why you do this, people fear telepaths for the wrong reasons yo, sorta erik/charles but not really b/c of reasons, there's some anti-gay and bashing on the part of the markos, when mind alteration is used but not in the typical way
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-29
Updated: 2020-11-29
Packaged: 2021-03-10 00:34:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 900
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27785338
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tenshi_Nanashi/pseuds/Tenshi_Nanashi
Summary: People fear telepaths for all the wrong reasons. By the time Charles' remaining students realize this...it's too late. The damage is already done but he is fine and unbothered and unbetrayed just as he always is.
Relationships: Erik Lehnsherr/Charles Xavier
Comments: 5
Kudos: 63





	A Danger To Us All

People are always afraid that telepaths will change their minds, their memories, their very selves. Charles has never been the type to cause that particular problem though he knows their afraid, has seen this fear inside their minds. To them, telepaths are 'a danger to us all.' He tries not to mess with other people's minds, has promised Raven not to touch her mind at all, but that leaves him with very little recourse for testing and practice except for his own unprotected brain.

He starts small and alters a little thing here or there. The drunken, hateful thoughts of his mother dim to lesser things in his memory. He can look upon her more fondly after that. He has his mother back. His father's experiments on him disappear into the recesses of his mind completely...the memories flattened so he can miss his dead father. It's easy and tiny and nonintrusive. And he would have kept things small if not for his mother's second marriage to one Kurt Marko.

Meeting Kurt and Cain Marko is at first new and exciting. Raven is projecting her fear, but he has been diligently attempting not to read any stray thoughts, so he's ignoring her as best as he can. She makes this all the easier by hiding every chance she gets and refusing to come out. More and more obstinate in her denials and cleverer in her hiding spots.

Kurt is stern. There's something dangerous in his eyes. He makes Charles' mother happy enough though, and she lessens her typical drinking habits to only very tipsy instead of full-on drunk. They often drink together socially, which is both better and worse in Charles' opinion.

Cain is pretty...impressively built. He smiles tentatively; his mind seems happy. They become makeshift friends within the first week or so, feeling each other out and just trying to decide how this new situation will work. His mind a new supernova amongst the dimmer stars for Charles to latch onto and learn to workaround. He cannot help but hear things, cannot help but know this other boy immediately.

Raven stays out of it. She tells him she has no interest in either of the new arrivals. She tells him there's something off about them both and to steer clear, but he doesn't listen because Cain's mind is so bright and interesting and new. It won't be the first time a bright and exceptional mind draws him into danger when Raven's sense tells her to stay wary, but he really should have listened to her about the Markos.

It happens like this: Kurt is drunk and witnesses Cain kiss Charles on the cheek near his lips. Kurt gets furious and angry and decides to teach them both a lesson on what happens to little inverts.  
Charles is lying alone at the bottom of the basement floor, at the foot of the stairs, cradling his broken arm, not sure how he got there. He's covered in blood and piss. He feels cold and hot, and he can't breathe. His mind has holes eaten through it; the memories appear as if dipped in an acid bath, and he just knows he did something violent to his brain. He knows Cain and Kurt attacked him. He knows he was never friends with Cain. He knows Cain never betrayed him; Cain never did as ordered and hurt him on Kurt's orders. He knows he needs to get up and take a shower and forget today even happened.

When Raven freaks out and asks about the arm in the morning, he tells her about falling down the stairs to the basement, and he even believes it to be the truth. This incident is just the start of his significant memory alterations, and no one realizes how bad he has gotten or how much of a problem he has until it's much too late.

Here's how that reveal goes: It's a while after the Cuban beach incident, and Charles has healed enough that his powers are one hundred percent better. His remaining students are with him, having a shared meal when one brings up the missing members, and he can't remember what they're talking about for the life of him.

"Sister?" He stares blankly at them. "I'm an only child. Unless you count my stepbrother Cain, which I most assuredly do not."

Alex starts, "You--"

"But--" Sean cuts in.

"Raven!!!" Hanks finishes.

Charles laughs, "The lovely blue girl that ran off with the metal bender, oh what was his name--Derek something or other? I hardly knew her."

"Derek?!" All three yell.

"Yes, angry chap. Met him a week or two before he paralyzed me and left us on a beach for dead...that guy." He frowns, "You know we really should have seen that coming. He was always a hateful, violent person. His mind was always full of dark and unpleasant things. Probably a good thing we didn't get to know him very well."

Jaws drop, eyes near popping out of skulls, and the three student's minds are freaking out, but Charles is oblivious to this as he has promised not to read them. His memories are torn to shreds and burned, and his brain hurts, but he is fine and unbothered and unbetrayed just as he always is.

After all, it was never other people's minds in danger from the telepath.

fin


End file.
